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For days the weather forecasters have predicted severe thunderstorms for our area and for days those storms have failed to materialize. I look at the radar images and see the storms pass just south of Kimberton. While I wait for rain, I get up early every day to water the plants in containers, make sure the garden plants have enough, and feel the earth beneath the grass turn hard as rock.

At times like this, it’s impossible for me to not think about water and how easy it is to take for granted. So, I wanted to re-share a column from July 2008. Here it is:

Some years ago I made a mad dash up to Massachusetts, where my son was going to school, to hear Maya Angelou speak to an assembly of students. Inspired through Angelou’s writing, I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to see her in person.

In addressing the group of eager young people, Angelou talked about where she had come from and what it had taken for her to create a life so different from the one that she started out with.

Of all the things that she said, one has stuck in my mind: “I want to tell you that you are bought and paid for.” Out of context, that’s an odd combination of words. But the message was this: “Your parents, your grandparents, even your great-grandparents brought you here. Their hard work to put food on the table, or their courage to cross the ocean to an unfamiliar world, to scrabble their way to buying a home, to being the first in the family to finish high school, or to attend college — this is what has made it possible for you to be here.”

In essence, what Angelou was saying was that the really hard work had already been done, and the groundwork laid for a fine future. It was a call to the students to be responsible, to be appreciative of all that had already been done for them, to not waste the gift they’d been given, but to use it.

Angelou’s words came back to me this week as I was digging out an old metal fence post in an odd corner of the yard. It was tough going. I couldn’t dig an inch without hitting a rock. None were very large, but they were very many, and they made for slow going. As I picked rocks, I thought of the acres of cleared farmland here in Chester County and across the country, already “bought and paid for.”

And I realized it’s not just our fields that are bought and paid for — it’s also our “utilities.” (What a small word for all the convenience that comes right to our homes!) The power lines that allow electricity to flow into dozens of outlets and fixtures in our houses, and the pipelines that bring water directly to the tap, did not spring up overnight.

Angelou’s words have also been ringing in my ears as I have been focusing on the issue of water usage and wasting water. The pure, life-sustaining liquid that runs freely when I turn on any one of the seven faucets in the house or the two outdoor spigots appears “free,” but it’s not, really. And, if we had to haul it by hand, or pump it manually from a well, we would use it more carefully and would be reluctant to send so much of it down the drain, barely used.

Next to oxygen, water is the most critical substance for our survival. It’s always surprised me that we treat it so cavalierly. It also bothers me because I know that I use my own large share of this precious resource, despite my efforts to conserve. I wonder: what your thoughts are of water?

Pam Baxter is an avid organic vegetable gardener who lives in Kimberton. Direct e-mail to pamelacbaxter@gmail.com, or send mail to P.O. Box 80, Kimberton, PA 19442. Share your gardening stories on Facebook at “Chester County Roots.” Pam’s nature-related books for children and families are available on Amazon, at Amazon.com/author/pamelabaxter.      

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